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Welcome!… and about MAFREL

This is MAFREL’s blog to monitor the Permatang Paul by-election, which will be held on 26 August 2008. (Nominations day will be on 16 August 2008).

Here is a brief introduction about MAFREL.

Malaysians for Free and Fair Election ( MAFREL ) is a non-partisan & non-profit organization & aims to contribute to the democratization process especially in Malaysia. It seeks to advocate honest, orderly, peaceful, free and fair elections. MAFREL also seeks to advance the development of electoral laws & regulations, so as to be in compliance of & conformity with international covenants and protocols.

MAFREL was formed 18 October 2003, by a conference of Malaysian civil society activists, held in Kuala Lumpur, after a deliberation on the necessity of initiating a domestic election monitoring effort for the 11th Malaysian General Election.

The conference unanimously adopted that MAFREL election monitoring efforts shall be based on Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights :

“The Will Of The People Shall Be The Basis Of The Authority of Government, This Will Shall Be Expressed In Periodic And Genuine Elections Which Shall Be By Universal And Equal Suffrage And Shall Be Held By Secret Vote Or By Equivalent Free Voting Procedures.”

However, due to limited resources & severe time constraints, MAFREL was unable to implement all the planned activities. The limited work of MAFREL for the March 2004 Malaysian General Election were electoral rolls verification by random sampling in three ( 3 ) Parliamentary constituencies prior to the election; Training of polling & counting agents in five ( 5 ) Parliamentary constituencies; Media monitoring through its partner Malaysian Voters Union; and Quick tabulation of results in cooperation with Malaysiakini. com

After the March 2004 Malaysian General Election, on the invitation of numerous international organizations, MAFREL participated in election observation missions in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Afghanistan, Thailand & Pakistan.

Within the country, MAFREL had conducted observation of the by-elections of Pengkalan Pasir ( in the state of Kelantan ), Batu Talam ( in the state of Pahang ), Machap ( in the state of Pahang ), Ijok ( in the state of Selangor ), & the state legislative elections of Sarawak

* to Publish and distribute election observation reports to the Election Commission of Malaysia, political parties, relevant governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, research bodies, media and international organizations

From the information which I received from certain quarters, there is a slight vote for BN on the last general election on March 8, 2008 from the seasons voters. Therefore, KeADILan and Pakatan Rakyat should strive forward to capture these group of voters to vote for KeADILan on 26th of August 2008 and let the majority and victory remains to KeADILan!